Garth Brooks may be one of the biggest stars in country music, but he's also a family man. Long before he settled down with fellow country star Trisha Yearwood, he had three children with his first wife Sandy Mahl — daughters August Anna, Allie Colleen and Taylor Mayne Pearl. The beloved singer is so passionate about family, he took 14 years away from his career to focus on being there for his kids while they grew up. No tours, no leaving their home in Oklahoma for the sake of his career. He wanted to be there for soccer games, school events and to pack school lunches in the mornings.
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"People said, 'How could you walk away from music?' " Brooks explained to People, "But being a dad - there's nothing that can touch that."
"Kids," he adds, "are the greatest joy and the greatest heartache you'll ever have. The saying is, as long as your babies are healthy, everything else you can deal with. If they have D's, if they flunk, you deal with it. You can introduce them to the Lord, teach them manners, teach them to believe in themselves, but the truth is, they're going to be who they're going to be."
Here's everything we know about Garth Brooks' daughters.
Taylor Mayne Pearl Brooks
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The eldest Brooks daughter was born just one year after Garth's breakout album in 1991, Ropin' the Wind. The name 'Pearl' is in honor of legendary Nashville comedian Minnie Pearl and Taylor is reportedly in honor of one of Brooks' all-time favorite artists: singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Brooks' daughter has done a great job of keeping out of the limelight so not much is known about her. We know that she studied history at Oklahoma State University and obtained her master's degree in theological studies at Vanderbilt University.
August Anna Brooks
Brooks' second daughter August Anna was the first to give him a grandchild! Born May 3, 1994, August Anna attended the University of Oklahoma and was working at a law firm when she became pregnant with her first child with high school sweetheart, Chance Michael Russell. The couple welcomed daughter Karalynn in 2013, marrying later that year. Baby girl number two, Gwendolyn, joined 3 years later. The happy family is based in Oklahoma, where the Brooks girls grew up.
Allie Colleen Brooks
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Brooks' youngest daughter is the only one to follow in her father's footsteps as a country artist. But she isn't clinging to the Brooks name in order to make it to the top. She's pursuing music under the name Allie Colleen. She's been performing since she was a teenager, even working stints as a backup singer for her dad before graduating from Nashville's Belmont University in 2018. These days, she's based in Nashville, where she's busy making music and making a name for herself. She's performed with the likes of Jo Dee Messina, Ashley McBryde and Lee Brice, and has even seen some hits on the charts like "Ain't the Only Hell (My Momma Raised)."
"My grandma was Colleen Carroll. She was a singer," Colleen explains in a Bobby Bones Show interview on her professional name choice. "God knows if this story is true, but I always thought it was the coolest thing: My grandpa told us about the day he met our grandma. He was just in from the military. He went to a bar, and he just heard her sing. He was like, 'I'm going to marry her.'"
